The Avengers 2
by Rachel Steele
Summary: Loki has been imprisoned in the vaults of Asgard since his disgraceful return from Earth. But someone slips silently between the cracks to break him out and try to restore his freedom of both body and mind. Someone who has loved him since they were children, and who will do anything to try and protect him.
1. Chapter 1

She paced quickly through the huge gleaming halls. The colours shone, deep and rich, but muted by the flickering torchlight. Her slippered feet made very little noise. She was swathed in a long diaphanous gown of deep green; her hair fell, dark and waving to her waist and her neck, ears, and wrists shone with touches of gold. As she turned a corner, the hallway widened and a great towering arch penetrated the marble and copper wall some fifty feet ahead of her to the right. Here she stopped. Guards in ceremonial dress stood either side of the great doorway. From this point on she could not falter. She stepped away from the wall and glided towards the doorway, from which light, music and laughter were spilling. The guards, recognising her, let her pass unchallenged and she dissolved into the great crowd of the throne room of Asgard.

She mingled, she smiled, she laughed and exchanged pleasantries. She carefully noted the presence of Odin, Thor, Frigga and Hogun. Neither the Lady Sif, nor the warriors Volstag or Fandral worried her. Sif saw no one else when Thor was present and Volstag and Fandral were always too busy pursuing their separate obsessions of eating and womanizing at a feast, to worry of anything else. It was these four and Heimdall the Gatekeeper she must watch. Luckily the feast was in full momentum when she chose her moment, making it difficult for the more alert to notice her, or anyone else's absence. She knew she could not fool Heimdall if he happened to turn his gaze towards the palace this evening, but it was risk she had to take if she was to accomplish her task.

Still smiling and charming she slipped through a small dark door in shadowy niche, murmuring to those near about getting fresh air. As the door closed quietly behind her, it sealed off all noise of the festivities and left her in a cool dark passageway. She leaned her back against the wall briefly and exhaled a long slow breath. She then turned, placed her palms and ear against the door and closed her eyes. She carefully extended her magical senses till she could just hear the murmur of voices on the other side of the door. Her palms sensed the vibrations made against the door by the shifting of air as guests moved about and danced and gestured to one another. She stayed like that, stock-still for long moments, feeling and hearing what was going on in the room she had just left. She desperately wanted to send a thread of her magical awareness into the room and seek out the locations of Odin and Thor, just to be sure they were still occupied and unsuspecting, but she knew she would not be able to do so without alerting them to her presence. Slowly she opened her eyes as she withdrew her power. The buzzing of conversation faded and she could not feel the door tremor beneath her hands anymore. Her hands still in place, she whispered a few words; there was a soft flash of blue that rippled over the surface of the door then faded. It was a simple spell that would hold the door against any drunken, or curious guests who happened to stumble across it, but it would not hold against the likes of the All-Father.

That done, she turned and surveyed the passage. It was high ceilinged and made of plain stone, small torches flickered high up near the roof, staining the ceiling with soot. To her right the passage sloped gently up and around, before splitting into several different routes that all led out of the main castle to the grounds or city. To her left the slope continued down gently, then levelled out. She shivered, wishing she could change into sturdier, more practical clothing, but her shimmering court clothing had a second purpose it had not yet seen to, and with that thought in mind she turned and begun to follow that dark path sloping down before her.

It was not long before she came to another door. Here the passageway would end and she would enter public rooms again. Pausing a moment she adjusted her hair and clothes so that both her figure and royal connections were clear to all, before opening the door and walking with purpose across the bright room it led to, towards a set of deep gold double doors. These doors were guarded by Asgardians sworn to give their life in protection of what lay beyond, and it was for these men that her hair was perfumed and her gown semi-transparent. As she neared them her walk changed from a stride to a more sensual, swaying gait and she smiled slowly. Her hands dropped to her sides and, hidden in the folds her of her flowing sleeves they begun a complicated pattern of movements. The air in front of her shimmered, accenting her loveliness and sensuality and then whooshed forward, washing over the guards, glazing their eyes and loosening their jaws. As she came to stand before them she opened her mouth to speak:

"I wish to see the prisoner". She said, still smiling gently, and the guards as one reached out their arms to open the gold doors and bowed her through.

They pulled the doors closed behind her and she released the spell as they thudded shut. They would not remember anymore than seeing her enter the antechamber and smiling provocatively at them until they woke the next morning.

She allowed herself a very small sigh of relief, the hardest part was yet to come, but she had fooled the guards. She looked around; she was in the treasury, the safe house of Asgard, home to the Tesseract, the Casket of the Frost-Giants power and the late resting place of Mjolnir Hammer of Thor. She had been here once before, when she was young, and that time there had not been a circular grate in the centre of the floor. She walked over to it then stopped. She crouched down to listen.

"Hello?" a light male voice asked. She smiled and reached behind her hair to unclasp the long gold chain around her neck, from which was suspended a small, round, deep blue stone carved with runes.

"Have you come to try and reconcile again brother?" sneered the voice. She arranged the chain around the grate placing the stone at the foot of the circle and touched it gently with her forefinger. Closing her eyes she whispered carefully very ancient words in a tongue none now remembered. Sweat beaded on her face as she felt the power from the stone grow and morph until she felt a shudder and opened her eyes in alarm, then delight as she watched the metal grate melt away, leaving an opening big enough to permit one person through. She gathered up the chain, the runes on the stone fading as the ancient power dissipated and lowered her body through the gap till she was hanging by her fingertips, then let go. It was further that she thought but she landed lightly, and straightening she glanced back up to see the grate shimmer and solidify back into existence behind her. She had very little time left before she was discovered, but allowed herself a small moment of gloating pleasure as she turned and smiled widely at the man trapped behind bars stronger than steel at the end of the room.

"No" she said in reply to his mocking question, and she strode over to the bars to clasp his hands and touch his face.

"Sigyn" he whispered as they came together, his expression predominantly shock but also wondrous. He reached his hand through the bars to stroke her face, as if hardly daring himself to believe she was really there.

"Loki", she whispered back, her eyes shining, unable to contain her joy at finally seeing him, touching him. She had not seen him alone since before Thor had been banished to Earth by the All-Father. He had farewelled her the evening before those catastrophic events as she had readied herself for a long journey to the highlands far outside of Asgard. She had gone to see her Mother and attend a village ravaged by an illness the likes of which she had never seen. She had been taken ill herself and it had taken her months to regain any kind of strength. When she had finally returned she had been heart-broken to learn what Loki had done, and even more so to learn that he had chosen to fall into the abyss created when the Rainbow Bridge had been shattered. And then when he had returned, brought home by his brother, she had wept for the pain he held but could not express. She had watched from a dark corner of the throne room as Odin had sentenced him to his imprisonment and a piece of her heart had shattered as she watched a tear roll down his pale face as he had looked his father in the eyes and said, without a tremor in his voice,

"You should have killed me the day you found me, and saved yourself some guilt".

As he had been pulled out of the throne room towards the dark door she had slipped through that very evening, he had seen her. And the bitterness had fled his face to be replaced with grief, yearning and the softening of one seeing a long cherished love. He had opened his mouth to say something, but then he was pulled onwards, the door slamming shut behind him and the throne room emptying quickly in the wake of Odin's grief and anger.

It had taken months of planning and the careful gathering of information, but finally Sigyn had found a way to free him from his dark and cold prison, and tonight she would do so or die in the attempt.

"How did you-" Loki began

"Shh! There's no time now. Stand back". Loki moved back towards the rocky wall at the back of his enclosure, watching intently as Sigyn closed her eyes and began to chant in the common tongue of spells. When she had finished she held her breath then stepped forward. She passed through the bars like smoke, and as she did her gossamer clothes seemed to melt away and were replaced by sturdy travelling clothes and weapons strapped to her back, arms and legs. The only thing that remained was the gold chain and blue rune stone, still twined around her fingers. She swayed, the effort of the magic plain in the paleness of her face and shadows under eyes. Loki caught her and touched her face, stroking away a damp strand of hair, smiling very slightly.

"The Goddess of Fidelity indeed", he said softly. She smiled exhaustedly up at him.

"They will know I am here by now. We must leave"

"But how?" he asked, still holding her; she was trembling. "You are exhausted, and these manacles the put on me chain my magic"

"With this", she raised the palm in which rested the chain and stone.

"That does not look powerful enough-" he began, but then stopped as they heard a shout in the above chamber.

"Quick!" she said and he bent his head so that she could place it around both their necks. He gathered her too him as she prepared herself for one last final effort. The magic needed for this spell was vast, but she knew she could do it if only she could concentrate.

"Face towards the wall", she said, "I don't want them to see me straight away". He swung them around as a great clattering, grinding, humming noise began above them. Someone was coming to check on Loki. She closed her eyes and began to whisper; slowly at first but then faster and faster. He could feel the power building around them and clasped her to him a little tighter. The runes began to shine, a bright, deep blue, enveloping them both in glowing light.

"STOP!" the All-Father boomed from the across the room. Sigyn raised her head and opened her eyes to look directly at Loki as she uttered the last word in the spell. And as Odin raised his hands to send power rushing across the room to entrap them, they vanished in an explosion of power, light and sound.


	2. Chapter 2

I another universe, Tony Stark sat bolt upright. Woken by a huge crack of thunder. He exhaled heavily, then swung his feet over the side of the bed and leaned his elbows on his knees, rubbing his eyes vigorously. He stood and stretched, rumpling his hair and yawning as he walked over to the window and watched rain lash down on Manhattan below him. After a while he shivered and turned to see the reassuring sight of ginger hair and a freckled nose lying on the pillow beside his. He crossed the room and climbed back into bed, shuffling closer to Pepper, who sleepily put an arm over him and stroked his back a few times before lapsing back into dreams. He snuggled closer, focusing on the smell of Pepper's hair and the warmth of her lying next to him, trying not to think of how strangely lonely and afraid he had felt just moments before.

* * *

Across town Captain Steve Rogers sighed as he watched a waiter's retreating back as he walked the walk of a man who has just spilt hot coffee down his pants.

"That was a big one", Agent Maria Hill said smiling at him. He smiled back,

"Yeah, I hope we don't get any flooding." He said, reaching for his wine glass then remembering that it was empty, placed his hand on the table. He began to drum his fingers then realised he was doing it and stopped.

"Do S.H.I.E.L.D. help out with that sort of thing?" he said. Agent Hill popped a couple of sugared berries in her mouth and chewed thoughtfully.

"Not generally", she said, "we might if there was wide scale damage and the national services were swamped, but we're more into monitoring world-wide threats rather than local weather issues". She looked at him closely, then put down her fork and covered his hand with her own, "Is everything ok Steve? You had a funny look in your eye just then".

"Yeah I'm fine, I just… oh look here comes my other coffee". He nodded to the waiter and smiled. "Sorry what were you saying about your Dad?"

* * *

Dr. Bruce Banner put his hand over his racing heart and tried to calm himself down. He glanced down at the broken vile and brilliant coloured liquid that spattered his laboratory floor. He held out his hand.

Perfectly steady.

He let out a breath he hadn't realised he'd been holding, then gathered the necessary materials for cleaning up. Once he was finished he glanced at the clock; eleven thirty. Not an overly late night for him, but late enough, and he hadn't had dinner. He took off his lab coat, washed his hands and pulled a sandwich from the fridge. He drew up a chair and smoothed out today's paper, concentrating on the mindless blabber of this politician or that until the dangerous surge of anger he had felt when he had dropped the vial was almost entirely forgotten.

* * *

Clint Barton stood still, his arms clasped behind his back and his head back gazing at the early morning sky above the harsh Australian landscape. Whatever had woken him, that jolting disturbance, still lingered uncomfortably in the air. Clint closed his eyes and breathed deeply, waiting for the call he knew would come from his high-powered satellite phone any moment.

It rang, starting off a chorus of birdcalls and shattering the early morning calm. He picked it up.

"Clint." Natasha's voice came through clear and collected.

"Natasha." He replied.

"You felt it too? Some kind of major atmospheric disturbance is what I'm guessing."

"Possible interference from Thor?"

"No it was masked, heavily. Thor's too distinct, and he's promised to alert Fury to any inter-stellar travel involving Earth on his part, and Fury hasn't heard anything from him."

"Think he'll pull us in?"

She paused. "Not all of us," she said finally, "not straight away at least. Looks like it will just be you and me to start with".

"What about Hill?"

"She… well Hill's seeing to… another assignment…" Natasha trailed off, traces of amusement in her voice.

"Natasha?" Clint said, an amused question.

"What I gathered from Fury when he called was that she's been helping Steve… settle in. I don't think he wants either of them disturbed right now."

"I see. Well I guess I'll see you at home then." He said, smiling.

"See you at home then." The line clicked and went dead. Clint put down the phone and decided to take just one more moment to appreciate the quiet and beauty of where he was before he left. He smiled; he couldn't wait to get back home.

* * *

Agent Romanov turned down the street to her building and let her car roll to a stop. She was unsettled. Talking to Clint had calmed her while she had been doing it, but now he was gone and was at least a sixteen-hour flight away from American soil. She turned off the engine of her car and closed her eyes, listening to the sounds of the city. Her eyes snapped open. Her car was in revving to life, in gear and screaming down the street in under three seconds. She couldn't think when she wasn't moving. Her car swerved and dodged until she was on a westbound freeway out of the city in a matter of minutes. Clint might be sixteen hours away, but she didn't have to wait any longer than that to see him. She would meet him in L.A. then fly back with him to New York. She needed someone to talk too; someone rational and logical who understood how the mind of a trained killer worked, and besides the drive would let her think. She reached over to the computer screen on the dash and activated a program that would alert all road police officers between here and L.A. that her car had the highest-level security clearance and that she was on a mission of national importance and was not to be stopped for any reason. That done, she settled down into her seat, and pressed the accelerator into the floor of the car speeding off into the dark and windy night.

* * *

"Father!" Thor roared. Acrid smoke bellowed out from the entrance to Loki's prison. Thor quickly knelt and jumped down into the cavern below. He landed next to his father who had been knocked down by the force of the spell and was now coughing, trying to regain both his breath and feet. Thor helped him up, and peered through the gloomy semi-darkness to try and see the mocking form of his brother. But he was not there. As the smoke cleared he saw only the half melted, half blasted wreckage of the bars that had held his brother captive. The floor and back wall of his cage were burnt black, and magical residue still glittered and cracked around the spot where he had been.

"He had help", croaked Odin, his eyes were dark and full of an unreadable emotion as he stepped slowly forward to examine the damage. "No one, not even I could have broken out of that prison without help. And Loki's magic was tamed by me when I imprisoned him here." Odin surveyed the blackened wall and floor, his face still unreadable. "So how did they do it?" he said finally and there was almost a note of admiration in his voice for this unknown accomplice who had thwarted his most astringent measures to tame his youngest son.

"We should have the guards questioned", said Thor. "They've obviously been tricked, but maybe they will remember something, some small detail that will give us a clue"

"Yes", said Odin absently. He was now crouching down in the soot, touching, smelling and muttering strange archaic words as he passed his hands over the place they had vanished. "Get Hogun to question them, he has a way of extracting the truth, and tell your mother what has happened".

"And if she should ask of Loki's condition?" Thor said. He tried to keep his voice steady but something must have betrayed his distress because Odin looked up from his position on the floor and said reassuringly:

"Nothing to worry about there my boy. I feel sure that if Loki or his companion had come to any serious harm in their escape, we would have evidence of it".


	3. Chapter 3

They shot to Earth like a comet from the sky, hitting the ground with a muffled bang, Loki holding a limp Sigyn protectively in his arms. Carefully he raised his head, scanning his surroundings as the dust settled. As the heat of the magic that had transported them faded he could feel the frigid night air rolling around them. He smiled, she had planned this well, knowing his true heritage and a Frost Giants fear of soaring temperatures she had chosen a cold place to hide them temporarily. Feeling her stir he turned and sitting up, pulled her gently into his lap. He brushed her hair away from her face and she smiled weakly, struggling to open her eyes.

"I knew I could do it". Her voice was barely a whisper. He leaned forward and planted a kiss on her pale forehead.

"And I never doubted you for a second", he said. She smiled weakly at that, then began to cough, a deep, lung-wrenching cough. Worriedly his hands fluttered about trying to find a way to soothe her airways, but his magic was still incarcerated by Odin's shackles. Two thick pieces of iron clamped around each wrist, apparently useless but for the magic imbued within. When she finally stopped, he gathered her up and stood as she rested her head exhaustedly on his shoulder.

"We need to find you some shelter", he said, casting about.

"North", she said, "a few miles north of this clearing is a cave. There will be firewood, blankets and some food. It's magically protected". He was about to ask how she managed this, but by the time he looked down at her bone-white face she was unconscious. Gently he laid her on the ground again then strapped the weapons and trappings she had brought on to his own back. That done he knelt, picked her up, and began a fast, smooth lope northwards till he came to the cave she had described.

* * *

Sigyn stirred. She was floating in a deep ocean, sunbeams darted around her from above. She looked down; it was pitch black far beneath her, but not cold or lonely as she had always thought the ocean to be; soft, inviting, an old friend who is content to wait forever. She looked up; the water became clearer and clearer, till it was like sparkling diamond underneath a crystalline blue sky. Slowly she began to swim up. Her long dark hair trailed behind her, weighing her down and her arms grew tired and heavy. She was about to give up when a small silver fish darted around her, wrapping her in a shimmering blue thread. The thread began to pull her inexorably up.

She opened her eyes to pale skin and dark hair that were not her own. Loki was leaning over her, his eyes closed and his hands shimmering with magic. Slowly he opened his eyes.

"Not today", He said, his eyes very serious. She nodded slightly,

"Not today", She agreed. Slowly she sat up. They were in the cave, a fire was burning and she was lying on a bed of leaves and blankets. It was night time. Loki handed her a wooden bowl of something she couldn't identify but it strengthened her.

"How long was I asleep?" she said once she had finished.

"Just a night and a day. You used a lot of power to get us here, I'm surprised you didn't sleep longer" he wrapped another blanket around her shoulders, placed more wood on the fire then took a seat on the cave floor, his back to the entrance. He raised his hand, the gold chain and blue stone dripped from his fingers.

"Where did you get this and how did it manage to undo the shackles Odin gave me when nothing else would?"

She smiled, he was frustrated she realised. She saw the iron manacles lying broken on the cave floor. He must have worked out how to use the necklace enough to free himself of them, but was no closer to working out what it was than before.

"It's called a 'Cardean'", she said, reaching for it. He passed it over "It's an ancient transportation device created by the All-Father eons ago, before the Rainbow Bridge."

"Cardean", Loki said slowly,

"It means 'axis' or 'hinge'." Sigyn said, running the chain through her fingers. "Odin gave these stones powers to open any door and even to create a door where there isn't one. The more powerful ones can clearly open doors to other worlds, but eventually regulating them got too complicated. People were opening doors left, right and centre. Some people died in the attempt. They couldn't handle the power you see? And they create huge atmospheric disturbance when used, it was throwing off seasons and crops in other worlds, letting in things that didn't belong there. Those stones can channel a huge amount of magic, but not everyone is skilled enough to manage it. So Odin had all but a few destroyed, and the ones he kept were all locked in the royal treasury".

"So how did you get it?" Loki asked gazing intently at her face. She smiled,

"Say what you will about Fandral, he's very stealthy when he wants to be", she looked up and laughed delightedly at his shock.

"But why would he-" Loki began

"Oh he didn't know why he was stealing it for me", she said merrily, "I made him a bet you see. I said that someone had told me that these were the most well protected items in the treasury. Fandral being Fandral decided that he would prove himself more stealthy and cunning than anyone else. He swore he would bring me back the prize if he wasn't caught. And so he did", she finished smiling. She threw the stone back across the fire and he caught it deftly, examining it closer than before now he knew what it was.

"How did you find the spells to make it work?" he asked incredulously, "I don't even know how it managed to open those cuffs, it was like there was some kind of magical residue that popped them off as soon as I pressed the stone to them"

"They don't just channel power, they store it as well. We mustn't have used all the power I summoned for the journey. As for the spells, Odin must have been very confident no one could ever get a Cardean, because they were just lying in the royal library. Anyone could have picked them up". She shivered suddenly and snuggled deeper into her blankets. Loki looked at her properly, she looked better than she had before but was still pale. Dropping the stone on the ground he rose and walked over to kneel in front of her. She looked up at him, something almost like fear in her eyes, but not quite. Slowly he reached into the blankets and drew out her hands. He brought them close to his face then bent his head to kiss first one then the other, and as he did so he felt something flare inside him that he had almost forgotten. His rescue and their escape had been so sudden that he had not had a chance to fully appreciate just what she had done for him. Just what she had once and still did mean to him. He hunkered down lower to look into her endless eyes, her hands held firmly in his, their foreheads almost touching. They stayed like that for a long time; to an outsider it would have looked like they were having a conversation.

"Why did you do it?" he said finally. She touched his face veiling her eyes with her lashes for a moment, then looked at him.

"Because I didn't forget who you were. That look in your eyes… when they dragged you past me that last time, reminded me of the looks you gave me growing up. It reminded me that once, not so long ago… I had a way of banishing the sorrow from those eyes… Because I didn't forget a promise I made". She took her hands from him and twisted off a ring on the third finger of her right hand. She held it up to him; it was silver with a design reminiscent of butterfly's wings intended to be wrapped around a willing finger. Set in the top was a small oval moonstone. She clasped the back of his neck, "because even though I was intended for one Asgardian Prince… they couldn't stop me falling in love with the other". With those last words, she knelt up and kissed him. The embers that had been sparked inside Loki before flared into a roaring fire and an unquenchable need, that would never be dimmed, for her love was awoken. He held her to him and returned her kiss with more passion and conviction than anything he had ever felt or done in his entire life. And all the hurt, all the pain, all the anger, bitter tears, disappointment and heart-break was washed away briefly in the tide of their love. He was still broken, still damaged beyond repair, and still mad with torturous envy and grief, but in her adoring, forgiving embrace he became whole again, if only for a moment.

They fell gently back onto the pile of blankets and leaves. Slowly, they peeled each other's clothes off, tasting, touching and inhaling every part of the other, until they became one, and nothing and no one in the universe mattered apart from this small piece of bliss that they had discovered in a well of darkness.

* * *

They stayed like that, all night, entwined in each other and their stolen happiness. A thunderstorm passed over them around dawn and Loki woke with a lightness in his mind that had not been there in years. Warm arms encircled him and when he opened his eyes he saw fathomless green ones softly closing with a contented sigh. Thor would have recognised the look in Loki's eyes now as he gazed at Sigyn. It was the look he gave Jane Foster, it was the look the Lady Sif gave him; the look another being gave to the love of their life.


End file.
